Currently, video live broadcasting technology has been applied widely. Traditional video live broadcasting technology generally transmits digital TV signals by Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB for short). DVB is an internationally recognized digital TV publicity standard. The DVB standard provides ways of wireless transmission such as Satellite TV, Cable TV, Terrestrial TV, Handheld TV, etc. At present, different DVB standards are used to transmit digital TV signals all over the world. In addition, with the development of IP technologies and Internet technologies, IP network transmission-based live channels represented by Internet Protocol Television (IPTV for short) and Internet video have gradually emerged. The above-described types of live channels transmitted through different networks are all called “live channels” in the present invention. The live channels can conduct broadcasting through various terminals such as TVs, mobile phones, tablet PCs, and etc.
With the popularization of intelligent terminals, a terminal equipment such as a digital TV set top box and etc. can, as a platform, provide a user with more service contents, such as Video On Demand (VOD for short) content broadcasting using the VOD technology, media content based on a USB hardware interface of a Set Top Box (STB), game content, and etc. The above-described types of contents are all called “non-live content” in the present invention. In order for users to conveniently access various service contents, the non-live contents can be automatically combined into channels according to a certain business rule, and the users can access different types of non-live contents in a traditional way of switching between channels. Such types of channels that are formed by automatically classifying the non-live contents according to the certain rule can be collectively called “non-live content channels”. The above-described “live channels” and “non-live content channels” can be collectively called “channels”.
Currently there are numerous channels, in order for the user to conveniently seek the channel that he wants to watch, a current terminal such as a STB and etc. may classify the channels into, for example, a high-definition channel, a satellite TV channel, an on-demand channel, a game channel, and etc. However, the current classification of the channels is excessively broad, and it is difficult for the user to find the program or content that he needs through these excessively broad classification. Therefore, currently it is very complicated to seek the needed channel in a list of channels.